Robots with reasoning power are becoming a reality thanks to massive amounts of training data and breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. VOA’s Matt Dibble visits a lab where robots are learning to solve problems themselves. Cameras: Matt Dibble, Tina Trinh.
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Day: February 6, 2025
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan duo in the U.S. House is proposing legislation to ban the Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek from federal devices, similar to the policy already in place for the popular social media platform TikTok.
Lawmakers Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey, and Darin LaHood, a Republican from Illinois, on Thursday introduced the “No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act,” which would ban federal employees from using the Chinese AI app on government-owned electronics. They cited the Chinese government’s ability to use the app for surveillance and misinformation as reasons to keep it away from federal networks.
“The Chinese Communist Party has made it abundantly clear that it will exploit any tool at its disposal to undermine our national security, spew harmful disinformation, and collect data on Americans,” Gottheimer said in a statement. “We simply can’t risk the CCP infiltrating the devices of our government officials and jeopardizing our national security.”
The proposal comes after the Chinese software company in January published an AI model that performed at a competitive level with models developed by American firms like OpenAI, Meta, Alphabet and others. DeepSeek purported to develop the model at a fraction of the cost of its American counterparts. The announcement raised alarm bells and prompted debates among policymakers and leading Silicon Valley financiers and technologists.
The churn over AI is coming at a moment of heightened competition between the U.S. and China in a range of areas, including technological innovation. The U.S. has levied tariffs on Chinese goods, restricted Chinese tech firms like Huawei from being used in government systems, and banned the export of state of the art microchips thought to be needed to develop the highest end AI models.
Last year, Congress and then-President Joe Biden approved a divestment of the popular social media platform TikTok from its Chinese parent company or face a ban across the U.S.; that policy is now on hold. President Donald Trump, who originally proposed a ban of the app in his first term, signed an executive order last month extending a window for a long-term solution before the legally required ban takes effect.
In 2023, Biden banned TikTok from federal-issued devices.
“The technology race with the Chinese Communist Party is not one the United States can afford to lose,” LaHood said in a statement. “This commonsense, bipartisan piece of legislation will ban the app from federal workers’ phones while closing backdoor operations the company seeks to exploit for access. It is critical that Congress safeguard Americans’ data and continue to ensure American leadership in AI.”
The bill would single out DeepSeek and any AI application developed by its parent company, the hedge fund High-Flyer, as subject to the ban. The legislation includes exceptions for national security and research purposes that would allow federal employers to study DeepSeek.
Some lawmakers wish to go further. A bill proposed last week by Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, would bar the import or export of any AI technology from China writ large, citing national security concerns.
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U.S. dairy cattle tested positive for a strain of bird flu that previously had not been seen in cows, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday, ramping up concerns about the persistent spread of the virus.
The H5N1 virus has reduced milk output in cattle, pushed up egg prices by wiping out millions of hens, and infected nearly 70 people since April as it has spread across the country.
Genome sequencing of milk from Nevada identified the different strain, known as the D1.1 genotype, in dairy cows for the first time, the USDA said. Previously, all 957 bird flu infections among dairy herds reported since last March had been caused by another strain, the B3.13 genotype, according to the agency.
Reuters reported news of the detection of the second strain on Wednesday ahead of USDA’s announcement.
The second strain was the predominant genotype among wild birds this past fall and winter and has also been found in poultry, the USDA said. It was identified in dairy cattle through an agency program that began testing milk for bird flu in December.
“We’re seeing the H5N1 virus itself be smarter than all of us,” said Beth Thompson, South Dakota’s state veterinarian.
“It’s modifying itself so it’s not just staying in the poultry and the wild waterfowl. It’s picking up a home in the mammals.”
Wild birds likely transmitted the second strain to cattle in Nevada, said J.J. Goicoechea, Nevada’s agriculture director. Farmers need to ramp up safety and security measures to protect their animals, he said.
“We obviously aren’t doing everything we can and everything we should or the virus wouldn’t be getting in,” he said.
The Nevada Department of Agriculture said on Jan. 31 that herds in two counties had been placed under quarantine because of bird flu detections.
It is important for the USDA to contain the outbreak in the state quickly, so the strain does not spread to dairy cattle elsewhere, said Gail Hansen, a veterinary and public health consultant.
Last year, bird flu spread across the country as infected cattle were shipped from Texas after the virus first leapt to cows from wild birds.
“We didn’t get a hold on it before,” Hansen said. “We want to avoid that same scenario from happening in Nevada.”
Dairy herds that were formerly infected may be at risk again from the second strain, experts said.
“Now it looks like we have new strains of virus that may escape some of the immunity associated with the other strains of viruses that could exacerbate the epidemics among animals and wildlife,” said Gregory Gray, a University of Texas Medical Branch professor studying cattle diseases.
“It’s alarming.”
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